Second Generation Authors of European Origin

Introduction

Anzia Yezierska’s story collection Hungry Hearts was made into a silent film in 1922.

Europeans were, of course, the first immigrants to North America. Although they made no attempt to assimilate or even to co-exist with existing North American cultures, some Europeans who were captured as children and then adopted by Native American tribes did live the kind of in-between lives we associate with the second generation. Some of these people wrote about their experiences. One of the most famous of the Indian captivity narratives is the story of Mary Jemison.

During the “Century of Immigration,” 1820 to 1924, 35 million immigrants arrived in the U.S., the vast majority from Europe. By 1920, more than one-third of the U.S. population consisted of immigrants and their children (pp. 124, 275, Coming to America by Roger Daniels). Willa Cather’s classic My Antonia tells the stories of children of immigrants from Bohemia and Scandinavia.

Many second-generation Europeans managed to assimilate seamlessly into the white, Protestant dominant culture, especially if they didn’t stand out because of ethnicity or religion. However, Catholics and especially Jews, even of the second generation, experienced discrimination and conflict.

Belgium

Sante, Luc (born 1954) — Sante was born in Belgium and immigrated to the U.S. as a child.

Bellow, Saul (1915-2005) — Bellow was born in Quebec. His parents immigrated from Russia. His family moved to Chicago when he was nine. He won the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and was a three-time recipient of the National Book Award.

Yezierska, Anzia (1885?-1970) — Yezierska was born in Poland. Her exact year of birth is not known. She immigrated with her family to New York City as a child. Her first collection of stories was made into a silent film in 1922.